Samson Young couldn't walk the hallways of Birmingham High last year without being stared at or pestered every day.

When Young left home-schooling and enrolled in Birmingham to play basketball, it was easy to see why he caused so much commotion everywhere he went. He was 6 feet 6 and 400 pounds as a 15-year-old freshman.

The soft-spoken Young wasn't so sure about all the attention, but it did make him popular in his new school.

Patriots football coach Jim Rose got a call from his defensive line coach, Kyle Morgan, one day.

Before Morgan could say "big kid," Rose was devising a plan to get him on the football field because he saw him, too. With a full-court press from football coaches and quarterback Trae Smith, Young decided to go out for football this year even though he had never played a snap in his life.

Everyone was always telling him to be careful and never hurt the other kids. Now, he gets to push other kids around on the field, even if it goes against everything he was taught.

"I didn't know what to expect because I'd never played football," Young said. "Letting my angry side come out is hard for me. At first, I didn't know how to bring it out in a legal way."

Young is still the big man on campus, but he's a much slimmer version, now weighing 315 pounds. People actually call him skinny, and it makes him feel good.

He still wears that size-18 shoe, too. And now, instead of bugging him to join the Patriots football team, Smith walks with him as a teammate.

"It's not like he had a makeover, but he's made a big transformation," Smith said. "His freshman year, he was gigantic. He's still big, but he's a good big. He looks like a freaking NFL player. His legs are huge.

"Now I walk around school with him, and everyone knows who he is. They still stare, though."

Smith had personal reasons for wanting Young to play football. If you were a high school quarterback, you would want a 6-6, 315-pound guy protecting you when you drop back to pass, too.

Young is playing left guard now, because it's an easier position to learn, but Rose believes his future is at left tackle, where he would protect the blind side. He has the makings to be the subject of a "Blind Side 2."

That's what everyone at Birmingham is talking about.

"At first it was cool, but now I hear it about 20 times a day," Young said.

Young has seen the movie. There are many differences, however. Young already is a good student and had a 3.6 GPA last semester. His favorite class is geometry.

He's an accomplished drummer and bass player and is in two different bands. He passed on a scholarship to the North Hollywood School of Rock so he could play basketball. His mom, Renee Moore, was a backup singer for Stevie Wonder. His stepfather, Edwing Sankey, is a musician as well.

Young's calling, however, seems to be football.

"You look at him, and he's a guy who should be playing on Sundays," Rose said. "This is what those guys look like. There's no pressure, but there's pressure. You know?"

Young is a work in progress. He's only five weeks of practice and one game into his football career, so he has his good plays and bad. In his first game, there's already video of him carrying out a screen play in which a defender ends up on his back.

"He got out there and just floored the kid," said Rose, as he watched the tape from his office in the school's weight room. "But he has to get consistent."

Also, he was flagged for a penalty because he left his mouthpiece dangling from his helmet.

"I thought I had it in my mouth, but I guess I was just so focused on what I had to do next," Young said.

Asked if he was glad he missed double days this year, Young got a perplexed look on his face. He didn't know that meant two-a-day practices.

Offensive line coach Vito Saracino just marvels at Young. There's lots of work to do, but he's thrilled to do it. He knew from the moment Young pushed a tackling sled 5 yards with one heave.

Most players move the sled 2 to 3 yards.

"I've never seen that in my 15 years of coaching," Saracino said. "He has massive thigh muscles. He looks like he's a thoroughbred. He doesn't lift weights. This is genetics."

Young's mom, Moore, is 5-5. His biological father is 6-4. Young said he has two uncles who are nearly 7 feet. Moore named her son Samson, the one from the Bible who is known for being strong. She was told by doctors she couldn't have children, so she calls Young her miracle.

"He has enormous strength," Moore said. "He was 10 pounds at birth. At 2 years old, he picked up his stroller. I wasn't aware how strong he is. I used to wrestle with him, and I went to tickle him, and he put his arm down and made a swift turn, and I broke my finger. I said, 'Boy, you are strong!' We didn't wrestle anymore after that."

Young has a basketball class when his teammates are lifting weights, and he didn't participate in the summer weightlifting program because he hadn't decided to go out for football yet. Coaches can't wait to get him in the weight room.

"If he decides he wants to do weights, we'll come in at 4 a.m.," Saracino said.

Saracino said Young is so polite that sometimes he has to remind him to be more aggressive. Since Young knows basketball best, he uses references he already knows. Saracino once asked Young what he would do if he was running down the lane and a 5-6 player was in the middle trying to defend him.

"I'd slam on him," Young told him.

"Would you feel bad about it?" Saracino asked.

Young said "no," and Saracino told him to bring that attitude to the football field.

Young laughed. He got the idea.

It was no laughing matter when Young was nearly 400 pounds. He gave up fast food and soda, and ate salmon, brown rice and vegetables for dinner for an entire month. He replaced Gatorade with water. He even tried to get his mom to eat healthier.

He still wants to lose 15 more pounds. And, of course, get the hang of being an offensive lineman.

"It's fun. I get a little nervous, but it's cool," Young said of games. "Coach (Rose) says when I lift weights and get stronger, it will be all over. I'll run over people a lot easier than now."